Tag Archives: Female genital mutilation

This Is Good News

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CNS News reported on Thursday that Pennsylvania has passed a law making Female Genital Mutilation as a first-degree felony in that state.

The article reports:

Currently, 32 states have laws against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), but women and girls are unprotected in 18 states, including Pennsylvania.

Murt added, “My bill has been endorsed by the AHA Foundation, established by human rights activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali in 2007 to promote freedom from FGM, honor violence and forced marriages.”

He continued, “According to the group, more than 500,000 women in the United States are at risk of this procedure—166,000 women under age 18. The organization ranks Pennsylvania 11th in the nation for this risk, with more than 19,000 women at risk for the procedure, 6,000 of them under the age of 18.”

This is not a benign procedure. The procedure is painful and often done without proper anesthesia. The healing period is long and painful. The procedure can also cause frequent urinary infections in women. It can also cause problems in labor and the delivery of children. This is not an acceptable practice–it is barbaric. It should be outlawed regardless of its acceptance in some cultures. It is not acceptable in America.

An Unfortunate Decision

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Fox News is reporting the following:

U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman ruled that Congress had no authority to enact a law that criminalizes female genital mutilation (FGM). “As despicable as [FGM] may be… [Congress] overstepped its bounds” by banning the procedure, the judge said.

FGM is a procedure that leaves the victim scarred for life and can cause serious medical problems as she gets older. It is barbaric. It should be banned by cultural norms, but because of the Muslim influences in our government, a judge has allowed the procedure to continue.

The article continues:

Michigan state Sen. Rick Jones also slammed the ruling.

“I’m angry that the federal judge dismissed this horrific case that affected upwards of a hundred girls who were brutally victimized and attacked against their will,” he said in a statement. “This is why it was so important for Michigan to act. We set a precedent that female genital mutilation will not be tolerated here … I hope other states will follow suit.”

The case in Michigan prompted state officials to pass a state law officially banning FGM. The law carries a penalty of 15 years in prison for assisting or performing the procedure, but applies only to future instances. Nagarwala and other members of the sect were charged under an old federal law passed by Congress.

The federal law was passed in 1996 under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution. The federal judge ruled the banning of the procedure under the clause was unconstitutional.

“There is nothing commercial or economic about FGM,” Friedman wrote in the opinion. “[FGM] is not part of a larger market and it has no demonstrated effect on interstate commerce. The Commerce Clause does not permit Congress to regulate a crime of this nature.”

Shannon Smith, Nagarwala’s lawyer, told the Free Press that they are “unbelievably happy” after the judge’s ruling, saying “The impact is huge. It eliminates four defendants from the indictment, and it severely punctures major holes in the government’s case.”

FGM is not an acceptable practice, and all states need to ban the practice immediately. FGM is barbaric and has severe negative health implications for the children who undergo it.

Protecting Our Young Women

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This article was posted in The Daily Caller last month. I missed it, but I am posting it now because I think it is important.

Wikipedia states:

In 1996 the Federal Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) Act made it illegal to perform FGM on minors for non-medical reasons, and in 2013 the Transport for Female Genital Mutilation Act prohibited transporting a minor out of the country for the purpose of FGM. In addition, 24 states have legislation banning FGM. The American Academy of Pediatrics opposes all forms of the practice. The firstFGM conviction in the US was in 2006, when Khalid Adem, who had emigrated from Ethiopia, was sentenced to ten years after severing his two-year-old daughter’s clitoris with a pair of scissors.

Unfortunately, some of the Muslim residents of America choose to ignore the law. Last week I posted an article about some recent arrests for performing FGM. We need to remember that Muslims who believe in Sharia Law believe that it supersedes the U.S. Constitution. They do not feel bound by the federal ban on FGM.

The article in The Daily Caller reports:

The American Civil Liberties Union launched a vocal opposition this week against a Maine bill criminalizing female genital mutilation (FGM), Mainely Media reports.

Republican Rep. Heather Sirocki is sponsoring the bill, saying that it would classify performing FGM as a Class B crime in the state, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine. The bill would also punish the parent or guardian of the victim.

However, the Maine ACLU staunchly opposes the protection. ACLU spokesman Oamshri Amarasingham said that the risk of mutilation isn’t worth expanding Maine’s criminal code. The Maine Coalition Against Sexual Assault also supported the ACLU, arguing that FGM is not happening in Maine.

…The bill, LD745, only criminalizes the practice on those under 18. It does not apply to adults who choose to undergo mutilation, “though it probably should,” Sirocki said. If the bill passes, Maine would be the 25th state to protect its residents against FGM.

Sirocki said that the Committee of Criminal Justice and Public Safety was divided in its support of the bill, but eventually recommended the bill favorably with a 7-5 vote. The Maine House of Representatives will first review the bill, then it will go to the members of the state senate.

FGM is a brutal practice, often done without anesthesia, that can result in serious health problems for women later on. It does not belong in America. I don’t understand why the ACLU is not protecting young women from being subjected to this practice.

 

Respecting The Culture Of The Country You Live In

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On Thursday, Townhall.com posted an article about the recent arrest of three doctors in Michigan for performing female genital mutilation (FGM) surgeries on young girls.

The article reports:

A Michigan mosque allegedly paid for young girls to receive female genital mutilation (FGM) procedures. This information came from a lawyer who represents the two children of Dr. Jumana Nagarwala, who was arrested in April and charged with performing FGM surgeries on two young girls from Minnesota. Nagarwala, along with Dr. Fakhruddin Attar, and his wife Farida Attar, have all been arrested and charged with crimes related to FGM procedures. Dr. Attar allegedly permitted Nagarwala to use his clinic, and Mrs. Attar allegedly helped to calm the victims during the procedures. Nagarwala may have as many as 100 victims.

…The defendants intend to claim a “religious freedom” defense.

In Virginia, an imam came under fire after he said that sometimes FGM was the “honorable thing” to do. He later apologized.

Under U.S. law, FGM is illegal.

Note that the defendants want to use ‘religious freedom’ as a defense. One of the goals of radical Islam is to bring ‘infidels’ under Sharia Law. FGM is part of Sharia Law. The fact that these doctors were engaging in this practice is one reason to encourage states to pass laws banning Sharia Law. Banning Sharia Law on the state level will provide a further bulwark against the instituting of Sharia Law in America. Sharia Law and the U.S. Constitution are incompatible. They cannot co-exist. Those who support Sharia Law have no intention of coexisting–their goal is the supremacy of Sharia Law. We have dealt with the conflict between religious law and Constitutional Law before. This was done when the Mormons were required to give up polygamy in order for Utah to become a state. The Sharia Law aspect of Islam is not religious–it is political and those who support it are not entitled to ignore the laws of America.

 

Please Don’t Come Here If You Don’t Want To Assimilate

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Yesterday Breitbart posted an article about some recent arrests in Michigan.

The article reports:

Dr. Fakhruddin Attar was arrested in the Detroit suburb of Livonia, Michigan Friday, accused, along with his wife Farida Attar, of involvement in the same female genital mutilation conspiracy that led to the landmark arrest last week of Dr. Jumana Nagarwala.

The three suspects now charged represent the first prosecution in the United States for female genital mutilation (FGM), a practice common primarily in Muslim countries, particularly those in Africa. For example, UNICEF estimates that 98% of Somali girls and 87% of Egyptians have endured the procedure.

 FGM perpetrates a range of different mutilations on its victims—mostly young girls. In its most extreme from, called infibulation, the girl is left with virtually no externally visible genitalia. The clitoris and labia are removed entirely and what is left is sown together, leaving only a small hole from which to urinate and menstruate.

Aside from being painful, the procedure creates many health problems for women as they grow older. Problems can include can include recurrent infections, difficulty urinating and passing menstrual flow, chronic pain, the development of cysts, an inability to get pregnant, complications during childbirth, and fatal bleeding. There are no known health benefits

The article concludes:

In a statement accompanying the first arrest, Acting U.S. Attorney Daniel Lemisch said, “The practice has no place in modern society and those who perform FGM on minors will be held accountable under federal law.”

Each count of FGM could yield the co-conspirators up to five years in federal prison.

Jail terms and loss of medical licenses would be an appropriate penalty. The procedure is illegal in the United States. Unfortunately, part of Sharia Law is that in the eyes of the Muslims, Sharia Law supersedes American Law. That is part of the problem with allowing large numbers of Muslims into a country–they do not feel obligated to respect the laws of that country if the laws are not in compliance with Sharia Law.

 

Losing Our Culture And Harming Our Young Girls

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As the debate about accepting Muslim refugees into America continues, there is something we need to understand–assimilation of the new Muslim population cannot be assumed. There is one statistic that illustrates that the Muslims that are already here are not interested in assimilation, but instead are carrying out a practice that is illegal in America.

The Population Reference Bureau reported the following in July:

The ABC News piece, “Underground in America: Female Genital Mutilation,” quotes PRB’s figures revealing that 500,000+  women and girls are at risk of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) in the United States—more than twice the number of women and girls estimated to be at risk in 2000.

Mark Mather, a co-author on the PRB article and associate vice president of U.S. Programs, told ABC News: “There haven’t been new numbers made available for more than a decade. We knew the immigrant population had grown considerably over the past 10 years, so for a population changing so rapidly, it’s important not to wait to get more updated estimates.”

FGM/C is illegal in the United States. PRB looked at immigrant families coming from countries with a high prevalence rate of FGM/C, including places where 80 percent to 90 percent of women undergo the procedure. So the rapid increase in women and girls at risk reflects an increase in immigration from these countries—or daughters with parents from those countries—to the United States, rather than an increase in the share of women and girls at risk of being cut.

Advocates warn that the risk of FGM/C can go up during summer months—”vacation cutting”—when girls often travel back to their home countries, particularly in Africa, to visit family. PBS NewsHour cited the PRB data analysis, underscoring the risk of FGM/C being a particular concern in New York, which has the largest population of African immigrants in the country. In 2013, about 97 percent of U.S. women and girls at risk were from African countries, while just 3 percent were from Asia (Iraq and Yemen).

This is not a practice that is welcome in America. We need to make it clear to immigrants that this is unacceptable. If families want to come to America, they need to refrain from breaking our laws in the name of their customs or religion.

Free Speech Is Still Part Of The U.S Constitution

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The Foundry at Heritage.org posted a story yesterday (with a video) about the efforts of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) to block the showing of the movie “Honor Diaries” from being shown on college campuses.

The article reports:

Kelly last night questioned CAIR Chicago representative Agnieszka Karoluk on “The Kelly File” about the group’s opposition to “Honor Diaries,”  a documentary that addresses abuses  such as female genital mutilation, forced marriages, and the oppression of women in Muslim society – what one commentator in the film calls “systematic, institutionalized misogyny.”

Karoluk, herself a Muslim woman, said that although CAIR  doesn’t oppose raising awareness, the source of funding for the film, the Clarion Project, is “Islamophobic.”  The film’s backers, she said, “use it to promote their own hate-filled agenda.”

…Kelly also spoke Monday night about the film. The documentary, she reported, features “a diverse group of women with different faiths, backgrounds, and nationalities, all of them focused on promoting women’s rights, especially in countries where women and girls are often subjected to something known as honor violence.”

There is nothing hate-filled about showing a film that reveals the abuses of women under Islam. There is everything hate-filled about trying to prevent people from learning about those abuses.

Here is the video:

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